A CHURCH minister appeared in court this week accused of systematically abusing boys when he was a prison officer at Medomsley Detention Centre in Consett.

One alleged victim, who was 15 at the time, said that when he pleaded with his tormentor to stop the repeated sex attacks, he was warned he could be found hanging in his cell.

The man, who is now 44, was giving evidence at Newcastle Crown Court against 65-year-old Neville Husband.

Mr Husband is alleged to have used his position in the kitchens at the detention centre to carry out sex attacks on a number of boys in his care during the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr Husband, of Snows Green Road, Shotley Bridge, became a minister in the United Reformed Church, responsible for two churches in Gateshead. The church has suspended him from his duties pending the outcome of the trial.

He denies 15 counts of indecent assault and one of buggery.

The first of six alleged victims to give evidence told the court he had been sent to Medomsley in 1974 for handling stolen goods. There, Mr Husband picked him out to work in the kitchen.

The man said: "I became concerned within days, when we were instructed by Senior Officer Husband not to wear underwear under our chef's whites, which were nothing more than a loose fitting cotton top and bottom.

"At first I thought it was a joke but the joke rapidly turned sour for me. I was systematically abused for the next three months."

The man said that on some occasions he was separated from fellow inmates and taken into a storeroom where he was sometimes tied to shelving and abused and forced to commit sex acts. He also claimed that Mr Husband had broken prison regulations to take him to his nearby home.

He said he was forced to undress there before being tied up, blindfolded, photographed in compromising positions and abused.

The man, who now runs his own business, said: "I pleaded with him to stop and became aggressive with him.

"But I was told I could be found hanging in my cell. It was a threat he used on a number of occasions. That year two boys had been found hanging in their cell. I was in fear of my life."

A second former inmate said he had been groomed for sexual abuse. The man, now in his forties, said Mr Husband had developed a 'strange friendship' before bullying him into committing sex acts and posing in the shower for photographs.

The alleged victim said: "He told me how people could disappear in places like this and be buried at the bottom of the playing field and no one would know."

He said that Mr Husband intimidated him into having pictures taken of him in the shower and on four separate occasions forced him to commit a sex act.

"I was too frightened to do anything to stop it," he added.

Jamie Hill, prosecuting, told the court boys were sent to the centre for 'short, sharp shocks.'

He said Mr Husband - who worked in the prison service for 27 years - was based in the kitchen, where he would be in charge of 12 to 15 inmates, aged between 16 and 19, at once.

Mr Hill said: "He took advantage of his position and on occasions would quite blatantly indecently assault inmates in front of others working in the kitchens."

He said an important feature of the case was that people, who are now spread throughout the country, had made complaints independently of one another.

The trial continues.